Once upon a time and in a very far away land, there lived a people who had been considered at times as having an almost perfect society where all and everyone had the opportunity to better themselves, where the government played the supporting role needed to protect both individual and social rights, and where all strata of society shared a very sharp dual foci: one on society and one on the individual. They understood a simple set of concepts:
- No man is an island. The vast majority understood that society, the aggregate of all individuals, was extremely important to create and nurture because there was a critical interdependence between all members; it worked as a well greased and effective machinery; additionally…
- Every individual, every piece in the machinery was important. If one of the pieces failed, the machinery (read Society) would not work as effectively as usual for the detriment of all.
- Everybody understood that rights and duties applied to all in the same manner, that the infringement of one individual’s rights would severely threaten the rights of all; and that dereliction of duties by one, implied larger burden for all.
- Everybody grew up knowing – having internalized since childhood – the concept of fair play, that one’s rewards depended on one’s efforts, that the individual was the only one who could put limits to their own dreams, aspirations and goals.
- The concepts of being a predator, of cutting in line, of cutting corners, of finding shortcuts, of taking advantage of others, of taking unclean advantage of situations were dishonorable and a source of shame.
God blessed this land with thousands of hectares of arable and fertile land in many diverse climates; they could work the tropical crops (fruits, sugar cane, rice, corn, beans, legumes) all year round; they could work seasonal crops such as wheat, rye, sorghum, and all tubers (potato, carrot, etc). Due to the abundance of good land, cattle and all livestock grew fat and with high quality meat everywhere. Minerals were also in abundance; gold, bauxite (to make aluminum with) and finally, iron, lots of iron. Life was good. The country exported almost everything and imported little: automobiles and appliances.
To further the blessings, oil – tremendous amounts of oil – was found in the subsoil and overnight, a prosperous nation became a rich nation, very rich nation. Its standard of living was considered in the 1950s one of the highest in the world; its Health Care system left no one behind; school (primary and secondary) was made mandatory; superior school was optional; it was also considered one of the best in that region of the world, and it was free! Immigration was encouraged but was selective; emigration was nonexistent.
And then one day things started to change… Little changes here and there… Subtle changes – almost imperceptible – but giving way to a different type of thinking… Someone discovered that cheating was OK as long as you did not get caught (what a concept!). Someone discovered that, if some individuals needed help (pieces were not working well) and you ignored those needs, the machine still worked well enough for the majority; that society could forget about some of their individuals and it was still OK for those who were not affected directly by that situation; that if they did favors for politicians, favorable legislation would come their way quickly; they discovered that if they paid enough money out they could circumvent processes and procedures getting results quicker; they discovered that lending money was lucrative but not enough, and that money needed to be manipulated to get richer quicker. They started to get into the world of shortcuts, the world of ‘cutting in line’, the world of ‘the laws apply to the little people’, the world of ‘results is what counts, regardless of how you achieve it’… Those who took advantage of the situations around them, became ‘accomplished’; those who did not, did not. Those who shorted and twisted the system and made it work for them, became ‘successful’; those who did not, did not. Those whose only goal was to make money, made lots of money, and became ‘affluent’; those who did not, did not. Eventually, there appeared a chasm almost imperceptible at first and later more and more obvious between a few who had become accomplished, successful and affluent, and those who had not. The laws, processes, procedures only seem to apply to the one who had not because the others had enough resource to ‘buy their way’ in or out of situations. The rich became fabulously rich and the middle class all but disappeared; after 20 years of this malaise, the acquisition of a house was reserved to only few; after 40 years, the renting of an apartment was reserved for the few fortunate ones… Professionals with two and three degrees (medicine, law, etc.) could not afford a house, and might have been able to afford a condo after 15 to 20 years of sacrifice.
Eventually, the people abandoned the system for lack of trust; those who could, got out; and those who could not afford to get out, did not. Institutions broke down; legal system broke down; economic and financial infrastructures broke down; the supply chain of goods and services, all of them, broke down. That country imports everything now, and only exports oil… The story of not quite over yet; that land still exist, but not for long.
The moral of the story, boys and girls, is that when the system can be rigged with no consequences, when you have billionaires openly trying to buy politicians and elections, when you have a congress that no longer represent the people but only the lobbyists, when the middle class becomes an endangered species, when mom and dad have jobs but cannot afford a house, when the normal Joe Kidd knows that a college degree gets them nowhere, hope is lost, society breaks down, the individual primordial instincts of survival take over, and the system is all but finished.
Food for thought:
“The easiest way to repeat history, is to ignore it or forget it”
- Anonymous
